Jarrett Baker/Getty ImagesYi Jianlian of the Nets takes aim from the foul line against the Knicks Monday night.

For every gain, there is a setback.
For every glimpse of promise, there is a glaring liability.

This is just the way it goes with young teams such as the Nets, especially those in the formative stages, and coach Lawrence Frank is prepared to acknowledge it, accept it and adjust to it.

But with the season only seven days away, where is the team exactly?

He readily admits he can't be certain, if only because five of the veterans he expected to be part of his rotation -- Josh Boone, Eduardo Najera, Keyon Dooling, Stromile Swift and Jarvis Hayes -- are either days or weeks behind all those kids doing the heavy lifting right now.

So the coach starts with this:

"Every one of our young guys has had a real good moment in preseason," Frank said. "You need to have success to have confidence. With the exception of maybe one or two, practices have been very good.

"What we'd like to see that has to significantly improve is our on-ball and off-ball positioning. It's going to have to get significantly better. That's something we drill every single day. It's a focal point of our defense. We'll have to get significantly better at it. We're making slow improvements."

He wants an elite defensive team, one that is capable of applying pressure for 94 feet -- he knows that much. But after surrendering 111 points to Boston without its Big Three and 45 points in the first 14 minutes against the Knicks Monday night, he also knows this is still a fairly distant goal.

He also knows he wants an offense predicated on paint attacks and the 3-point shot, with seamless options after the initial break is shut off. But after accumulating 76 assists and 102 turnovers in five preseason games -- an amateurish ratio -- the cohesion is not exactly coming naturally to them.

So for now, he'll have to rely on the simple stuff, as expressed by his de facto captain.

"We just have to outwork people," Vince Carter said Tuesday. "Run the floor and out-execute people in the quarters and in the game. That's just how it has to be. We have the ability to rebound and run the floor and shoot the ball. So our execution is going to be the most important thing."

That doesn't mean they haven't seen some positive developments from the young players who are now forced to grow up faster than they had originally hoped.

Center Brook Lopez was very impressive against the Knicks, rolling up 19 points and nine rebounds. And even though he fumbled the ball away five times, he got all five possessions back (two steals, three blocks).

"His ability to block shots and clog space is just natural," Carter said of the 7-foot, 260-pound rookie. "With his ability to rebound, he can be a double-double guy without running a play for him. I think he has that ability."

The problem, of course, is that you can't rely on 20-somethings to post those numbers every night. It is likely to be an ongoing source of frustration in the coach's meetings this season.

Two vivid examples: Yi Jianlian may have looked like a worldbeater over his first six quarters against the Celtics (Thursday, and in the first half against Boston Sunday), but he has all but disappeared since then; and Sean Williams may have been the star of camp for the first two weeks, but he has managed to put together only 16 points (4-for-15) and four blocks in this entire preseason.

Upshot: Their inconsistency, along with the injuries, has not exactly made it easy for Frank to settle on a starting lineup or a rotation. As of now, the group that started the last two games -- Carter, Lopez, Devin Harris, Bobby Simmons and Yi -- are likely to start against the Sixers at Izod Center tonight, and perhaps in Wednesday's opener if Boone can't recover quickly enough to supplant Lopez.

"We would have liked to been able to start with a rotation pattern and start with different combinations," Frank said. "But you can only control what you can control.

"I know where we're going to go, I know what we're going to do -- in terms of who's going to be there now. The key is getting everyone enough practice time and game time -- that's the reality of it. We'd have liked to start yesterday in terms of figuring out. But you can only deal with what you've got."

Notes: Najera did some dummy offensive drills Tuesday, but he's still days away from absorbing contact. Hayes, however, was sent home sick. These two, along with Boone and Swift, won't play Wednesday night. Dooling, who is recovering from a respiratory infection, is iffy.